Wikipedia:Griefing

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In wartime, sabotage was the deliberate disruption and subversion of the war effort by breaking and destroying things.
In Dante's Inferno Virgil tells Plutus, who is menacing Dante, to "Be silent, thou accursed wolf; Consume within thyself with thine own rage."[1]

Griefing is the act of chronically causing sudden annoyance to other members of an online community, or more specifically, intentionally disrupting the immersion of another player in their gameplay. The term

online communities
, including here on Wikipedia.

Griefers are similar to

tag team editing
, to deliberately ridicule content on Wikipedia with which they disagree, to ridicule and harass editors associated with that content, and to interfere with the normal workings of the project. Trolls will instead more often act individually by baiting other members in an attempt to disrupt, and by causing other community members to waste time in dealing with the troll's actions. Both griefers and trolls are usually acting out in a desire for attention, or for what they perceive as revenge.

Identifying griefers

With the growth of external websites where participants sometimes discuss content at Wikipedia that they find humorous and/or offensive (sometimes referred to as

canvassing
, griefers can be very disruptive to the normal editing process.

Griefers may lack

norms
.

Reasons for griefing

There are as many motivations for griefing on Wikipedia as there are griefers, but common causes are:

  • Emotional immaturity and/or instability.
  • Adolescent rebellion against authority. A desire to push the limits and attempt to disrupt.
  • Sociopathic
    behavior.
  • Boredom. Some griefers feel that they want something to do, and if they're not interested in participating in a constructive manner, they will generate their "fun" by antagonizing others. This boredom generally arises due to a lack of sufficient stimulus or creative outlets that can sometimes be the result of excessive regulation and moderation by authoritarian personalities and overly broad interpretation about what sort of activities constitute 'griefing' (see, for example, Linden Lab's definition of "broadly offensive").
  • Seeing no other recourse to address systemic problems which result in Wikipedia's inability to rid itself of bad characters.
  • Amusement derived from other people's reactions.

Responding to griefers

In terms of dealing with griefers, the community must eventually make a cost–benefit analysis to determine whether a participant's contributions justify the loss of morale they inflict on other users.

Dealing with a griefer is often dependent on the exact nature of their activities.

See also

Note

  1. ^ Čeština. "The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Inferno, Canto VII". En.wikisource.org. Retrieved 2013-12-22.